(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/14/2024) The state’s Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) told a House panel that in addition to staff shortages, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions contributed to the nearly $1 million in missing liquor bottles from three distribution warehouses.  

The House Ethics and Oversight Committee hearing was in response to a March 2024 audit that found 62,294 bottles of liquor, or 20 percent of the total value of state-owned inventory at the time, missing.  

Kevin Kubacki, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Financial Services Division director, expanded today on the reasons there were no physical inventory counts conducted at three audited warehouses between October 2019 and July 2022.  

He said while outdated software accounted for a large portion of identified deficiencies, the issue was worsened by a lack of quarterly physical inventory counts during the COVID-19 pandemic, a sentiment echoed by MLCC Business Manager Kerry Krone. 

Krone said the MLCC was not able to physically go into warehouses and do inventories, and “as everyone knows, we had record sales during the COVID-era, as well as almost every other state in the country.”  

She said from a capacity standpoint, the old system - which is being replaced - was still able to handle that volume of sales.  

But, “we were just very cautious about anyone going in and out of those warehouses,” she said, due to the risk of infection from delivery drivers traveling to multiple establishments across the state.  

Krone said the MLCC did also lose some staff members during that time period, and as hiring was frozen during the pandemic, “it took us a while to get back.”  

Sort of like a perfect storm, all those small things, combined with a vacant auditor general role, led to the large discrepancies seen, the pair said.  

According to the Auditor General’s office, the position became vacant just before the pandemic, and has still not yet been filled. The goal is to have someone in the position by the end of the calendar year.  

In addition to resuming regular quarterly physical inventory counts and getting on track to filling open staff positions, Kubacki said a new software system, SIPS+, is expected to modernize the state’s liquor ordering system when it is released later this year.